One of the PlayStation VR games I’m looking most forward to is also one of the oldest games, if not the oldest game, heading to any VR platform, and it now has a release date. Rez Infinite, the VR remake of the 2001 classic, will release this October alongside the PlayStation VR headset.
Rez originally released for Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 in Japan in 2001, following up with a US release in 2002 on PlayStation 2. It quickly became a cult classic and, before long, very difficult to find. Rez is, at its base, a rail shooter. Its unique wireframe visuals pulse in time with the electronic beats of the dynamic, curated soundtrack, alongside which the controller vibrates, intended to create as full a sensory experience as video games can create (until we figure out how to integrate taste and smell, anyway).
The camera, locked behind your avatar in game and moving on a set track, makes it a great fit for VR, and takes the overall experience up to a new level of immersiveness. Director Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who led design on the original as well, has always experimented at the junction of hardware, music, and unique visuals.
The most infamous of these is the Rez “trance vibrator,” a peripheral intended to amplify the vibration aspect of the original game. Once we’re all done giggling, we’ll move on.
Mizuguchi also created the unique Space Channel 5 and Lumines, two music-fueled games with memorable visual styles. The latter is available on Xbox One backwards compatibility and is still a pretty fun timed puzzle game. Child of Eden, for Xbox 360, was a great-looking and nearly unplayable rail-shooter designed for the Kinect (and later for PlayStation Move).
Rez‘s visual style has allowed it to age pretty elegantly over the last 15 years, looking good in an HD release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well.
For Rez Infinite, Mizuguchi and his team are working on an all-new sixth stage.
Rez Infinite hits PlayStation VR (as well as PlayStation 4, where it’s fully playable without VR) alongside the headest itself on October 13, 2016. The game is currently slated exclusively for digital release.
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